HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – For more than 65 years, Army Corporal Jules Hauterman, Jr. remained unaccounted for. The Holyoke native was one of more than 1,300 Americans captured or killed during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War in November-December 1950. But after decades of wondering just what had happened to him, his body has finally been identified, and is coming home.

Hauterman was a medic with the Medical Platoon, 1st Batallion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. His unit was attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team, which fought the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. The 31st RCT was forced to withdraw to a nearby Marine base, but the Chinese destroyed their convoy, and many were killed or captured.

According to a news release sent to 22News by the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Hauterman was never accounted for, and on December 2, 1950, was reported missing. No lists of prisoners of war provided by North Korea or China included Hauterman, and no returning American POW had any information about him. He was declared deceased due to the lack of information on his status.

The body that has been identified as Hauterman’s was actually found near the east side of the Chosin Reservoir in September of 1954, nearly four years after the battle. His remains were taken to a laboratory in Japan, but were declared unidentifiable. With his remains designated as “Unknown X-15904,” Hauterman was interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu for decades.

In June of last year, Hauterman’s remains were disinterred, and scientists from the DPAA found that dental and anthropological analyses matched his records. That, in addition to circumstantial evidence, led them to make the positive ID.

His body will be returned to his family, and he will be buried with full military honors in Holyoke on March 31.